(CNN) - He may have exited the national stage nearly one year ago, but former Vice President Dick Cheney has been named "Conservative of the Year" by the conservative Human Events magazine for his ardent and continuous criticisms of the Obama administration's national security policies.

"What Cheney is saying, primarily on foreign policy, defense and anti-terrorism, makes sense to more and more American citizens growing increasingly worried by the Obama Administration's insouciance when U.S. national interests are threatened, both at home and abroad," former U.N. ambassador John Bolton writes for the magazine.

"Since the only real, long-term way to deal with persuasive positions on substantive policy matters is to refute them with sounder policy arguments, it is not hard to understand why the Obama White House is near panic," Bolton also writes. "Where are they going to go to find a better policy inside his administration?"

In a series of interviews and speeches over the last year, Cheney declared President Obama had put the country's security at an elevated level of risk as a result of a string of national security decisions that largely went at odds with Bush administration practices.

Cheney's comments have met criticism from many Democrats and some members of the media who say he would be better off following the example set by former President George Bush, who has remained largely silent on the actions of his successor.

But in the Human Events article, Bolton said its necessary former leaders continue to defend their policies.

"Most people have scratched their heads at this criticism, which is what passes for devastating analysis by the media, because it is entirely natural for a senior public official to explain and defend his policies once he leaves office," Bolton writes. "In fact, it is critical that men and women who have served in high positions, as Cheney has, to do just that, to give our citizens a better understanding of what actually goes on in high-level decision making."

"Cheney's quiet, inner-directed motivation is simply impervious to the attacks orchestrated against him by the Chicago machine-style politicians at the White House, a fact also plainly visible to his fellow citizens," Bolton adds. "And it is yet another important reason to have confidence that Cheney's solid policy analysis will yet prevail in the national political arena. Of course he is the conservative of the year!"

soundoff(306 Responses)

Whut

To be named Conservative of the Year, all you have to do is be a No-man obstructionist with no ideas? Cheney and Bush essentially flushed the US down the toilet for 8 years, but now Cheney has all the answers. It doesn't surprise me. He ducked Viet Nam with every deferment in the book, and then he criticizes John Kerry's military record. Everywhere he goes, nobody challenges his self-serving statements or contrasts them against his actions when he was effectively the President.

Can someone tell me why anybody listens to this guy? If I had my way he'd be in The Hague on war crimes charges. At the very least, he should be imprisoned for treason for his part in the Libbygate national security scandal.

December 21, 2009 12:15 pm at 12:15 pm |

Playtoe

"Cheney's quiet, inner-directed motivation is simply impervious to the attacks..." Really! Sounds like narcissism, selfishness, self-centereredness, has virtue in the Conservative moment. My goodness, what's happening to the good name of Conservatives.

December 21, 2009 12:15 pm at 12:15 pm |

hankers

Bolton adds. "And it is yet another important reason to have confidence that Cheney's solid policy analysis will yet prevail in the national political arena. Of course he is the conservative of the year!" >>>> Bolton epitomizes what is wrong with American foreign policy. In one word – belligerence!

December 21, 2009 12:15 pm at 12:15 pm |

KY

John Bolton saying that Cheney should be "conservative of the year" is like G. Gordon Liddy saying that Nixon should be "crook of the decade". Mr. Bolton entreaty to "have confidence that Cheney's "solid policy analysis" will prevail in the national political arena" assumes that his audience has: a) been asleep for 10 years; b) suffered from collective amnesia; or c) the intelligence and independent thought process of Mortimer Snerd.

December 21, 2009 12:16 pm at 12:16 pm |

jacq

He's a crook,thief,and he got a lot of soldiers killed behind his lies

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

Jeff

Is there a list for arrogant fear-mongers?
He'd top that one, too.

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

Fred the Moderate

This creep is their best? He and the bush administration took a surplus and turned it into a 2 trillion dollar deficit, ruined the justice department, violated the law in outing a CIA operative, violated the law again by pushing us into an illegal war with Iran on falseified information, allow our education system to tank, allow our infrastructure to fall apart, illegal alins to pour over the border, made our ports and borders less secure, gave billions of tax payers dollars dollars to Haliburten and their subsidaries with NO Bid Contract, tried to bury the whitehouse emails, Allowed Us to be Attacked on 9-11 by ignoring the reports from the Clinton Administration, the list goes on and on and this is the BEST they have to offer?

The GOP is doomed.

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

keith brown

Dick Cheney's ideology is based on power and money. If that's Conservatism, then great! The greediest 5% of Americans have their man.

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

Bolton is dead wrong

Nice mouth piece for this war criminal Cheney though.

This is kinda like a member of the mob declaring how great one of his fellow criminals was......now that he's gone, all the other criminals miss him.

Justice will prevail.....cheney will go to trial in this lifetime for Crime against the people of the Unised States, War Profiteering, misleading Congress and the Senate, Possibley misleading his own President and Treason.

the whirlwind, the whirlwind, Justice will prevail, its where American Exceptionalism is cradled.

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

Dean

Conservative of the Year? LOL The right wing has really gone off the deep end, naming the head war criminal as some sort of hero. What warped and twisted logic they have.

December 21, 2009 12:17 pm at 12:17 pm |

max in maryland

Yawn. No one cares..go back to being irrelevant Cheney.

December 21, 2009 12:18 pm at 12:18 pm |

chuck

what an idiot. he should be in jail disgusting

December 21, 2009 12:19 pm at 12:19 pm |

Randy, San Francisco

Why isn't Cheney on trial for war crimes against humanity?

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

Jim in Phoenix

"ardent and continuous critic" means your are Conservative of the Year? Doesnt that just make him a grouchy old man?

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

Dieter Zerressen

Quoting John Bolton in support of Dick Cheney's policies is like asking Michael Jackson's doctor about prescription drug abuse. Pluueez, make it stop. Bolton was the WORST US ambassador to the United Nations EVER.

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

The Real Tom Paine

If John Bolton objects to the President, then you know President Obama is doing a good job. Bolton and Cheney's ham-fisted approach to foreign policy did catastrophic damage to our reputation and our values, and whatever shrieks of support he has for Cheney should be taken for what they are: the rantings of a representative of an undisciplined, unfocused and amoral clique.

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

Tobin

After their multiple bitter failures, both at home and abroad, these two deep down must be deeply embarrassed. No one else will come out and support them or their failed policies so they will continue to cry about it. Sorry –no one is listening.

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

Tina

As far as I am concerned, he is the most angry unhappy man of the year. He thinks America belongs to only him and he is the only one who knows what is good for America and nobody else. We watched him turned our country upside down and we lost all our respect because of his bulleying attitude. I don't call that true conservative. I call it Mr. Arrogant.

December 21, 2009 12:20 pm at 12:20 pm |

Bob

OMG!!! Cheney and his pack of merry men spent 8 years destroying the economy, invading other countries under false pretences and just plain screwing up. Now he gets acknowledgement and praise for his criticism of his replacements because he feels they should follow his doctrine? GIVE ME A BREAK!

December 21, 2009 12:21 pm at 12:21 pm |

Efrem Lieber

If you start with the premises that God announted the US to lead the world, and that same God annointed you to redress all greivances, than Dick Knee-Jerk is perfect. Just ask him; everything he did-telling the world he was right and they didn't count-worked so well: we were so unpopular, had more wars than when he started, and he held back Al Queda from his secret location, all by himself. Oh, he lied to Congress, too. Self-congratulation is easy; the truth hurts. Cheney-Bush-Rice nearly ruined us, sent us into recession, and nearly destroyed our credibility in the world. Great credentials! Conservatives should be proud of such a complete failure.

December 21, 2009 12:22 pm at 12:22 pm |

zazzle.com/TheProgram

He's evil, corrupt, and bitter.

December 21, 2009 12:23 pm at 12:23 pm |

David

Conservatism? Yeah right. We wouldn't be in this mess if Cheney and his pals on Wall-street didn't have total freedom to do whatever they wished during their 8 years of dis-service. All he cared about was making his friends richer.

December 21, 2009 12:24 pm at 12:24 pm |

Thomas

As a conservative, I can attest that what Dick Cheney stands for is not conservatism.

December 21, 2009 12:24 pm at 12:24 pm |

Ben in Texas

In case you've forgotten who the article writer John Bolton is, look up "fanatic" in the dictionary. He was the one Bush sent to the U.N., even though Bolton expressly called for the U.S. to withdraw from the U.N. and said that the U.N. should be disbanded.

He's just the kind of crazy who would admire that 5-time-draft-deferred lying chicken hawk war criminal and profiteer Dick Cheney. Normal people want Dick to be "Federal Inmate of the Year" for the rest of his life.

December 21, 2009 12:24 pm at 12:24 pm |

SocialismBad

Congratulations VP Cheney! You have fought hard to keep America safe from terrorists killers that would kill us all at the drop of a dime. Too bad Obama and all his apologizing, excuse making lackeys just don't understand the message their weakness sends to our enemies.